Word: hamer
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...National Institutes of Health scientist Dean Hamer reported that he and his colleagues had isolated a group of genes more prevalent in homosexuals than in the rest of the population. Immediately following the announcement, the words "gay genes" were transformed from figments of imagination to somewhat fuzzy reality. The sizzling controversy of homosexuality had become, for many, a purely scientific issue...
...Hamer has not yet fallen victim to the same temptation as his fellow scientists who have been catapulted to national recognition. The subject of Hamer's research was no less in the public eye, but rather than succumb to the desires of public affairs officials and media organizations and come out on one side or the other of the national or regional debate, Hamer has thus far steered clear of making any sociological determinations based on his genetics work...
Applauding Hamer, however, does not absolve those who would seek shelter behind the chromosome to explain their own insecurities. Rather, it provides a model for scientists who would--and should--seek to avoid the spectacle of half-page color pictures of Gilbert Mudge in the Boston Globe and banner headlines in the New York Post about MGH AIDS researcher Yung-Kang Chow, a "make-good" Asian immigrant...
...related, unpublished study, Hamer added to growing evidence that male homosexuality may be rarer than was long thought -- about 2% of the population, vs. the 4% to 10% found by Kinsey and others. Hamer notes, however, that he defined homosexuality very narrowly. "People had to be exclusively or predominantly gay, and had to be out to family members and an outside investigator like me. If we had used a less stringent definition, we would probably have found more...
Even gays admit that Irvine is partly right. Homosexuality is not simply programmed but is a complex expression of values and personality. As researcher Hamer says, "Genes are part of the story, and this gene region is a part of the genetic story, but it's not all of the story." We may never know all of the story. But to have even part of it can bring light where of late there has been mostly a searing heat...